Evidence for Big Bang waves dissolves under scrutiny

February 2, 2015 9:16 PM

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An analysis of data from the BICEP2 telescope and Planck spacecraft suggests that the detection of what appeared to be primordial gravitational waves could have just as likely been caused by interstellar dust in our galaxy.

Last March, international researchers from the Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization (BICEP2) telescope at the South Pole claimed that they detected primordial “B-mode” polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. If confirmed, this would have been an incredibly...